Communists in Tibet Replace Satellite Receivers

April 28, 2009

By Qiao Long
Radio Free Asia
April 26, 2009

Beijing has implemented another measure in Tibet
to cut off the information flow through
electronic media. In Maqu County, Gansu Province
alone, the regime replaced 170 satellite dishes.
Residents can only receive China Central TV
(CCTV) signals and no longer have Internet
access. A Tibetan overseas pointed out this
completely violates the right to media freedom in
the regimes recently announced Human Rights Action Plan.

Kongbo Dangzha, a member of the Tibetan Language
Research Center in Norbu-glingka, Dharamsala,
India, told RFA, "In both metropolitan and
suburban areas in Quma County, all computers were
cut off because there isnt Internet access. The
170 new receivers from the government only get
signals from CCTV News, CCTV-1 and CCTV-2.

Kongbo said that the authority started to replace
the receivers on April 10 and finished on April
23. "In the last couple of days, all the
receivers cannot be used, we cant listen to RFA now."

The RFA reporter called many Internet cafes in
Quma, but the phones were not answered. The
reporter then called the Office of Religion in
Quma but the staff refused to talk about it."

Gesang Jiansen, member of the Tibetan Congress in
Dharamsala, gave the authoritys reason for
switching satellite receivers, "Since March 2009,
Tibetans in Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and
the Tibetan Autonomous Region installed their own
satellite receivers. Now the authority claims
secret agents from the Tibet independence
movement installed them and hence confiscated all
of them and reinstalled official ones.

Gesang explained that the Tibetans used to be
able to watch news from India and neighboring
countries and could listen to overseas news. "Now
they cant listen to RFA or VOA," said Gesang.

Gesang believes the authority is trying to block
all information channels, which is against the
right to know in its Human Rights Action Plan.
"The authority says one thing and does another."

The reporter also noticed that Lhasa Evening News
online and Tibet Daily online became unavailable
recently (before the new receivers were installed).